angeles tonight, whether it will be there tomorrow, is up to the wind now. that is what is going to decide what happens next in your neighborhood, on your street, to your house. that is a situation that is, in some ways, not unique to california, but california is the state where you can lose your house every single day of the year to a natural event. hurricanes are seasonal. blizzards are seasonal. earthquakes are not. fires are not. these things can happen any time. this intense wind increases the possibility of this fire and has fueled the fire. that is what you're watching there tonight. and there will be more of it. that is tonight's last word. the 11th hour with stephanie ruhle starts now. tonight, wildfires scorched southern california.

whole communities destroyed as hurricane force winds fueled the deadly blazes. our reporters live on the ground. then donald trump asked the supreme court to block his sentencing this week in his hush money case. plus, meta abandons its hate speech rules. why that will put the most vulnerable people in even more danger of abuse online. we will break it all down as the 11th hour gets underway on this wednesday night. good evening once again, i'm stephanie ruhle. welcome to the midweek night cap. today we are following the devastating wildfires in southern california. these images are almost hard to believe. it is the most destructive in los angeles city history. president joe biden appeared with governor gavin newsom to brief the public on disaster relief efforts. he approved a major disaster declaration to get federal assistance to the region. there are multiple fires burning right now across the area. at least five people are confirmed dead. more than 1,000 structures have

been destroyed, and tens of thousands of people are under mandatory evacuation orders. we are trying to get my colleague, gadi schwartz, the shot up from los angeles. they're currently having a problem with his signal. as soon as we can get him we will bring them to you live. but right now i want to bring in our team from washington, d.c., resident-elect donald trump met with republican senators there about his agenda and the new senate majority leader john thune, he has a list ready. watch this. >> republicans in congress are hard at work repairing to address some key priorities for the budget reconciliation process. border security is one key part of providing for our national security. investing in our military is another. we are also going to invest in american energy dominance. other priorities, extending the tax relief that republicans delivered during the first trump administration. >> but republicans are split on

how they're going to get it all done with a very slim majority in the house. meanwhile, donald trump himself is still fighting his own legal battles. his team is now asking the supreme court to block his sentencing in the new york hush money case which is scheduled for this friday. attorney general merrick garland intends to release special counsel jack smith's election interference report to the public. with that i want to bring in our nightcap, because we need some help tonight. senior congressional reporter for punch bowl news, blake zeff, former communications director for senator schumer and an obama campaign spokesperson. he is also the founder and director for msnbc documentary lone wolves. semi sage, author of democracy in retrograde. and journalist john avalon, he wrote the book lincoln and the fight for peace, and also recently ran for congress. andrew, donald trump was asked if his party was on the same page. from what you can tell, are they? >> to be frank with you, absolutely not.

republican senators came out of this meeting very concerned about the fact that they are not on the same page about how to advance president trump's agenda. you might think this is just a wonky congressional procedure issue, whether they do it in one bill or two bills, but it actually matters a lot. because they can't even get started on this process until they decide whether to do one or two bills, because they have to pass a budget resolution, which essentially lays out instructions to the various senate committees basically telling them what all can be included in it and how you raise revenues from the policies you are going to enact as part of this process. so it really is as simple as that. and what donald trump was telling senate republicans was that he is siding with mike johnson on this. not because of mike johnson's ideas are better than those proposed by senate republicans and new senate majority leader john thune, but because mike johnson is the weakest link in this gop trifecta. in other words, house republicans are so dysfunctional right now they can't pass

anything, and so the best way to go forward here is to combine everything into one comprehensive piece of legislation, a mega bill, if you will, and try to get it done that way. senate republicans are very skeptical that that is going to work, and they tried to convince donald trump of that tonight. they failed to do so. >> well, thune is very focused on trump cabinet picks and how they're going to get them all through. do you think could be struggling the most? >> the ones that are teetering on the edge are obviously tulsi gabbard, the pick for director of national intelligence, as well as pete hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense. senator jack reed, top democrat on the armed services committee met with pete hegseth today and released a scathing statement that he has no confidence in his abilities, his qualifications to be secretary of defense. that is a rare statement at this stage in the confirmation process, because usually members of the opposite party try to keep their powder dry, they try to wait until the confirmation

hearing to chart out how they are thinking about a nomination. the fact that senator reid did what he did today bodes poorly for his nomination in terms of winning over maybe one or two democrats. that was always the possibility, i don't gets possible anymore this point. the question is, do republicans stick together on the nomination, and do they stick together on kelsey gabbard nomination? she is supposed to have her confirmation hearing next week. now it might slip into the week following, because not all of her documents have been cemented the committee, including the fbi background. there are a lot of senators i spoke to who you really interested in reading that background. there are concerns about her position on the foreign intelligence surveillance act section 702, which essentially allows warrantless surveillance. a lot of the information is compiled in the presidential daily briefing, which tulsi

gabbard, as director of national intelligence would be responsible for providing to president-elect donald trump. >> if any of those senators want to have a late night call, i would like see what's in that report, too. you used to work for chuck schumer, how do you think it's going to go down? >> well, the senate has made it clear to the senators in his talk is that he wants to see fireworks. by that he means take this opportunity to really show the american people how insanely out of the mainstream some of these appointments are. whether it is robert f kennedy, we have not talked about him yet in terms of running hhs or tulsi gabbard. so there's a real feeling among democrats that they allow the republicans to define them as being out of the mainstream and being out of touch, and here you have disappointed coming up that are just out of control. we cannot normalize this. we have heard the names now for three or four weeks and i think it's starting to settle in for people. like no, you can't let that happen. that's what they do. so schumer, i know, is talking with the senators saying prosecutor that record before

inertia sets and and people just accept that you're going to have these horrible nominations. >> yeah, a don junior trip to greenland distracts us from going hold on. so i read something, i was happy you are coming tonight regardless, but when i read the new york state democrats are looking to drop the trump resistance playbook and actually find a way to work with him on some of his winning issues, immigration, inflation, public safety, i'm guessing you like this idea. >> look, if you are referring to the op-ed, that was a very good op-ed. i do think there are places where democrats should work with donald trump, if we can find common ground on the policies for which i think the majority of americans think there is an urgent need. border security, figuring out how to deal with the affordability crisis. there are areas where we can find common ground. but where there is not common ground, there should not be common ground or where these cabinet appointees or nominees who are beyond outside the mainstream.

just apply the politics of the golden rule. if a democrat nominated someone for fbi director who had an enemies list in the back of his book it would be a nonstarter, as it should be. if they nominated a weekend morning show host to be the secretary of defense it would be a nonstarter, as it should be. and someone who had been an apologist for a thought, that would be a nonstarter. someone who opposed vaccines, that would be a nonstarter. as far as health and human services. so apply those standards. be forceful about it. were there are areas where there is common ground? pursue that in good faith. >> is under an opportunity, not to say that donald trump is right on public safety or immigration or inflation, but to say trump is looking to tackle them, and crime is not that bad, or immigration is not a crisis, can't one say yes, these are top issues for voters , but he does not have the right solution, there is work to be done. >> that's exactly right. and the democrats, if you sound like you are gaslighting people,

saying you should say clearly it fell under joe biden. but we have to make sure we are strong on public safety. we are strong on the border. the biden administration was not strong enough on the outfit. find the common ground, find where you can find solutions so you are not simply playing playbook, but fight the right fight on the issues that matter most. >> i like that. i want to share this, because speaker johnson said democrats are struggling with their identity, and i want to make sure i have the sound bite. congressman hakeem jeffries responded and said this. >> the republican conference is filled with marauding bands of individuals who cannot stand each other. and democrats, as far as i can tell, are unified in our determination to make life better for the american people. >> what's your take? >> maybe he is talking about the house caucus at the moment, but i think what mike johnson was trying to say it was the democrats and how they speak to

the electorate, and who is in the base. and what do they believe? what are their priorities? i think that is the disconnect that mike johnson was addressing. although i do think hakeem jeffries give a great response. >> what you think? >> i mean, look, i'm going to keep it real here. it is true that the democrats, i'm going to be honest. i will be self-critical and very honest. every time a party gets there but kick in an election, they should have a self-reflection period. and there is always this identity freak out that happens. when i worked for senator schumer we did terribly in the 2004 elections, president bush was re-elected, congress did not go the way we wanted, and there was a freakout. we went and looked at what we for? we know what the other party is for. we know what their eight words are. what are our eight words? the same thing happened with republicans, when mitt romney got creamed and they did their autopsy, which told them to do all these things that they went

and did the exact opposite, of course. when they nominated trump. it's very healthy, and i think it is important. i think the democrats should be reassessing their identity on these things. in terms of unity, it's true the republicans cannot shoot straight. they have full control of the government now. they congratulate themselves when they actually pick a speaker without too much drama, when they can actually get their act together to just be unified. now we are talking about whether they are going to do one big beautiful bill, two bills, they can't figure that out. i think the republicans need to worry about themselves, too. >> guess what, even if you win big, silver flexion is always a good idea. >> you just want to say something about the autopsy they allegedly did after 2004. i don't really think they actually did much of an autopsy. i think they got saved by obama, who is a very effective order and celebrity. i think part of the reason why we are here is the fact that they did not do that redefining of what are the democrats values? i think that's what people are so upset about now, that they feel like a republican light already. >> john, you should weigh in.

>> i disagree with you, this is the tension right now. there is a temptation as a democrat, you know what, do the contrast. and some folks might say that's great. the problem is democrats, always 50% more in the country than liberals. democrats need to find more common cause with independent voters. even though winning independence narrowly nationally this time around, in the swing districts it went the other way. you do need to make sure where we probably have some common ground, democrats cannot be the party that defends the status quo. that's a loser. so you need to be the party of reform. that also means recognizing some areas where you been on the back foot. usually because state legislatures moved to far left and seemed out of touch with common sense on the part of a lot of folks. >> andrew, what are you hearing for democrats on the hill? those that this is their job, what are they thinking going forward? >> i think democrats view the next couple of weeks in

particular as an opportunity, for example, tomorrow the senate is going to vote on the lake and riley act, which is a piece of legislation that would essentially make it easier for law enforcement officials to detain undocumented immigrants acumen of crimes. democrats of come up to me over the last couple of days and said they are very interested, not only in voting to advance this measure tomorrow in the senate, it will take a few days for them to pass it, of course. actually voting yes on final passage because they view it as an opportunity for them to reorient their message when it comes to border security. this is a piece of legislation that just past the house, of course, this week. and the question is when it gets sent to the white house, which white house will he gets into? will it get sent to president joe biden or president donald trump? republicans have not decided that yet. and it could be interesting to see if they try to jam joe biden with this in his final days in office here, or just wait until donald trump gets in office, in which case he is obviously going to sign this piece of legislation. but of course, in the senate we got the filibuster, so republicans cannot pass this on

their own. they're going to need democratic votes. all indications are at this point that the enough democrats will support that. a couple of democrats are actually cosponsors of it. john fetterman and ruben gallego, for example. >> andrew, thank you. the rest of the nightcap is staying with us. but before we got a break i want to turn back to the fires in los angeles. hopefully my colleague is with me now. are you there? >> reporter: hey, stephanie, we are up in the hollywood hills. we moved from the pacific palisades where we were earlier to see so much devastation, and then all of a sudden this fire up in the hollywood hills in runyon canyon , a very popular hiking spot in all of los angeles started to go up. there than evacuation orders given for this area, and we are seeing choppers coming through. you come this way, this fire engine here is loading up. so you've got water coming out of these fire hydrants. emily that would be a yeah okay thing, but tonight it is such an important point . the water is

pressurized in this area, it is something that we did not see happen in the pacific palisades around 3:00 in the morning. the water pressure drop, and so often fire crews were going to those fire hydrants to try to put out those fires and they were not able to find water. so they were left helpless as those winds came down and they ravaged that community. they are saying about 1000 structures in the pacific palisades have been lost. we were down there all day. we went to neighborhood after neighborhood. i can tell you that is a very preliminary number. those numbers are expected to go. but so far we have not seen any structures lost here in the hollywood hills. this is where the fire is come down, and it is meeting that urban interface. so far the wind has stayed down, as well. if you look at any of these trees, they are not blowing. which is great news. it also means that the

helicopters can fly through , they can make those drops, they're coming about every two or three minutes. we have seen them on a circuit, and those drops are being done with such precision. you see those hotspots flare up, and then a couple of helicopters come through and in fact, i think we got one approaching here. they come down and they put the water exactly --what we have seen throughout this area is -- starting to evacuate, but there is not that sense of urgency that we saw a little bit earlier. it is almost as though people are looking up and they are not taking this seriously. they should be taking this seriously, if they are downwind of this fire. hollywood, hollywood boulevard, all the way up into the hills to mulholland drive. that is, right now, the evacuation zone. i can hear some of the choppers circling above. i think we might have --we've

seen a lot of other people with suitcases making their way out, the other thing that people are concerned about out here is a possibility of looting , unfortunately it is something we've heard about in the palisades. it is something that we heard about in the city of altadena, which was also destroyed as so many homes were destroyed there. law enforcement says that they are stepping up security in these areas. a couple times we were stopped, they wanted to see who we were with. but for the most part it seems like only residents are allowed back here. hollywood boulevard, which is two streets over from where we are right now, is in absolute gridlock. you can hear some of the choppers working. i have not seen them come through in a little bit here. but just up the way, those embers, that is where you are starting to see the fire. this is what happens when the

fire is on topography like this. even though the wind is pushing down this way, the fire will rise up alongside the hillside, towards runyon canyon, towards the hollywood hills mansions that are up at the top towards mulholland. because of the topography, the fire will superheat -- extremely dense. it will climb, it should reach mulholland at the top, and the wind that is blowing this way will probably double back this fire. so the wind is almost acting as a break to hopefully protect the san fernando valley, so many other homes down in that area. however, there is a possibility that as the winds pick up, if they do pick up tonight, it is going to be pushing down this way and it will push down into this very populated area, actually, if we can look up right here, these choppers are flying so low, you can feel it in your lungs when they come over. this chopper will come in, it will circle, and it will start

spotting its next drop. and when it finally does come into make a drop it will have some sirens, they use those brilliant night sensors. another chopper is coming in, circling right here. we've seen about three or four choppers working this fire, and right now the first line of defense. there's another one, actually, right behind it. it's coming right over here. and this is such -- those who are living in this area, that sign of hope -- palisades or in altadena. but that is a sign that hopefully things are getting a little bit better. >> all right, i am losing your signal. please stay safe where you are. i'm thinking about you and your family. thank you for being there. this reporting is so important. we will take a quick break and have more on the fast-moving wildfires burning out of control in l.a. but next, meta not only ditches it's fact checking, but i want

you to pay attention to this. this should not get lost. it also rolls back its rules on hate speech. so what will your social media feed look like? the nightcap just getting underway on a very busy wednesday night.

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the fundamental force that unites us is not kinship or place of origin or religious preference. the love of liberty is a common blood that flows in our american veins. >> this is my whole life right here. you know, i spent my whole life savings to get my condo here. and so i lost my family during covid. and s this is my whole life right here. i've spent my whole life savings to buy a condo here. and so i lost my family during covid. so i don't really have anybody to call or anything. so it feels a little bit scary, yeah. >> yeah, our people still in the complex? >> a lot of people have left, but a lot of people are staying, too. i think we are going to be okay. i hope so. all these firetrucks are going

up there, but you never know. all these mansions right here, if they catch on fire, we are in real trouble. >> what's your plan, are you staying? >> i'm going to stay right until if it catches on fire i will leave. >> we got to find that guy. he may have lost some family risen covid, but he is not alone. we are thinking about him. because tonight the sunset fire broke out in the hollywood hills, prompting more evacuations in california. firefighters are now attacking the blaze by air. as of this hour, more than 100,000 people have been evacuated and unsafe water alert has been issued for pasadena residents in evacuated areas. from the eaton fire. nbc's morgan chesky joins me now. he is live from altadena, california where that fire is burning . morgan, this fire has been devastating and deadly. you have covered natural disasters across this country years. tell us about what this is like and put it into perspective for us. because what we see seems apocalyptic.

>> i think that word is quite fitting right now. in all, unfortunately, the right ways. having covered disasters, as you mentioned, the thing that is most striking is the combination of factors that have exacerbated this disaster to become one that will be remembered for generations to come. we've been in altadena all day long, and what is wild wrap our heads around his this time yesterday this was the fire that had burned about 400 acres. you look at the acreage today, we are talking 10,000-plus acres, hundreds of homes, and at least five lives lost as a result of this wind driven the fire that proved an incredible battle overnight and over day for fire crews that was compounded by the fact that they did not have the necessary resources to take on this fire. we will talk about that in a little bit, but just some of what we've seen here, we drove one of the main thoroughfares in altadena, and if one building was burning over here, there was

another on our left. and smoke-shrouded skies everywhere. but it was not until you got back in the neighborhoods that you saw the scope of this damage. we came upon an apartment building engulfed in flames , and we had a man drive up with his wife. he was checking on his mother's home, it had not caught fire just yet. but it was very close, and i asked them, have you been personally impacted by this yet? he said between himself and his wife, they have five family members that have already lost their homes as a result of either the palisades fire or the eaton fire. that is a single family. and when you look at the scale of this fire, and how unprecedented it is, we are only just beginning to grasp the gravity of the tragedy that is happening in real-time here. and specifically in altadena, we had those gusty winds fueling these claims across this area, and in some cases, firefighters had to just retreat and almost

take defensive positions. because there was only so much they could do. and i think hearing that from them, and seeing the heartbreak on people's faces whenever they have come back and seen the total loss, it is only going to, unfortunately, be repeated in the next 24, 46, 48 hours or so as people come back and see what has been left behind or what has not been. >> let's talk about this firefighters. they've been working nonstop around the clock. do they have all the resources they need? >> absolutely not. first and foremost. these cruise behind me are from el dorado hills in central california. so they've driven several hours out to be here to try to help out some of the local cruise here. we know that we saw another kern county crew putting out hotspots. the call is out. crews from other states driving here as we speak to try to assist. another story that stuck out with our crew was the fact that not one fire group, but two told us that whenever they pull up to

a fire hydrant, particularly on this eaton fire, they don't anticipate having normal water pressure at this point. one fire captain telling me that had they had a fully functional fire hydrant with pressure they could've potentially saved a home. instead we had to stand and watch his crew unplug that hose from the hydrant, stand back from a building, and watch it burn. and then go to another fire, plug in another fire hydrant and cross their fingers, maybe there is water there. this is going to be one of the issues we focus on in the days, weeks, months going from this tragedy. but it is one we saw playing out again and again, and i don't think that can be overstated enough , having covered fires before, i don't know that i've ever seen this many fire crews out a fire, and so little water. >> holy cow, morgan, thank you so much for your reporting. thank you for being there. stay safe. i know for you at home watching,

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>> don't go to the bathroom. don't go get a drink. i really want you to pay attention t don't go to the bathroom, don't go get a drink. i really want you to pay attention to this. because it is not just no more fact checking. meta, facebook, instagram , their new changes mean it is going to be easier for people to spread hate speech and abuse on facebook and instagram. things that will not reportedly be allowed under meta's new conduct policy. referencing women as property, calling gay people mentally ill, and referring to entire ethnicities as diseases. that is a-okay. and let us be clear, these are groups who are already being targeted online. a 2022 report from the u.n. looked at more than 50 countries and found that nearly 40% of women have been harassed online. in 2021 a pew study of the u.s. found that young women are particularly likely to experience sexual harassment, and according to the very same

study, about seven out of ten american lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults of been harassed online, too. i want to bring into our conversation nbc senior reporter brandy. the internet is your world. you don't discover this, you have faced extraordinary abuse online. tell us what this is going to look like now that we are not going to have guardrails. >> well, it's going to be worse for all the people it's already bad for. women, minorities, immigrants, gay people, trends people, all gay people, trans people, all the people who are already attacked online. mark zuckerberg and joe kaplan have said we have gone too far protecting you. sometimes conservatives say they are censored, which is not true, according to the data and research. that is not actually happening. but they feel that it is, and their feelings are more important than your truth, so we are going to roll back the things that we have instituted to try to keep those user safe. we don't care about that. >> so, will this community notes system do anything?

>> it's unclear how they are going to roll out community notes. the fact is, it's not really an effective tool on x, even though zuckerberg said that is why we are instituting, because it worked so well on x. that's just not true. community notes take a really long time. research suggests that those community notes are driven by partisan actors, and the most important thing, they are very, very, very slow. and incitement to violence happens very quickly. we have seen what happened in myanmar, we have seen what happened with stop the steal. these things happen like lighting. and with whatever community notes thing that will roll out, what will happen, mark zuckerberg said yesterday we are no longer going to check those things automatically. machine learning, when it comes to harassment and hate speech, no more. instead we are going to rely on users to report that. i don't know if you ever tried to report something to facebook. you are not getting a response. >> that is a joke. >> it is a joke. that is that part.

but if it is community notes, the what will happeney model it on x's platform, someone will say i think there should be a community notes person here. and if, god willing, they find a number of people willing to work for free on facebook to comb through posts and see what is and is not true, instead of paying fact checkers to do that, then eventually there will be enough of a groundswell of people who say this is a hopeful note that it will get a note on it. and when it gets a note on it, does that mean it does not go high up in the people's feeds, like the old fact check things did? it is unclear. so those things might just remain on the platform forever. it's very unclear. the only thing that is clear about the announcement yesterday is that it is a capitulation to conservatives like jim jordan and donald trump, who have actually threatened zuckerberg with jail time and contempt of congress, and other political threats. he gave them the farm. >> so it's a business decision for mark zuckerberg. he is saying this is the best

thing for his business. he has an ftc case to worry about. he has all different issues. but how about the business of his users? you've got millions and millions of women who are using facebook, using instagram every day, socially they are using it for their businesses, and now we are in a position that we are facing less and less protections. could mark zuckerberg wake up and have the users on his platform say i'm not okay with this, or are we are not going to because we don't have anywhere else to go? >> that is the catch-22 of these large social media platforms. people don't want to leave because they have already built up a degree of following, and there is a superhighway for communication. in four years when there is a new administration, who knows, he might find religion about this. but right now this is obviously announced on january 7th. it seems like it is sort of falling in line with the trump administration's prerogatives. is it a result of a brush back pitch? did it all those threats have the effect of having him change his policy?

is the sort of trying to curry favor with the incoming administration, with a fig leaf of fiduciary responsibility, but actually it is just not playing politics with a strongman? it looks like that. most of all what it is going to do is pour more fuel on the fire of our culture war debates at a time when disinformation is galloping and for their distorting our ability to reason together. that is larger danger. >> what is your take on these changes? what does it say about the moment in america? >> i think it is really problematic and dangerous. i think that this, when you look at, also, trump's rhetoric around greenland and panama, how he says he is going to take canada, it will be the 51st state, we are playing in a different world than we were before. we are a playground, or if you want to make it darker, jungle rules right now. this is the place. where might makes right, and anybody who wants to bully someone off of the internet or bully someone off of their land, and i think that what we are looking at is really the consolidation of rapid consolidation of power and money amongst four people.

looking at trump, musk, putin , and zuckerberg, who were able to control all this information. and even some of these land grabs, for example, these attempts, my assumption is that they are creating a situation where you could create some sort of political movement in these countries. that could ultimately then deliver those territories to whom ever the algorithm is rigging it for. and i am just thinking like what kind of movement could they manufacture off of twitter and facebook, like when you think about what happened in myanmar? and it feels like this is something where what is happening on social media can go really quickly and jumps a real life. and the geopolitical implications, i think, are really dangerous.

this is not an era of diplomacy. >> following what happened in new orleans last week, nbc had been reporting, talking to experts who said the online algorithms that are designed to make us angry are leading to more people becoming radicalized quickly. so isn't that the issue? they realized that rage is what's working for them. >> 100%. this is a business decision, like you said, it's also a matter of fear. mark zuckerberg is a tool with no morality. every four years, like i was just talking to the president about what the country wants, what was good. the it's based on who wins the election. when everyone was mad at trump and voted for biden, it is terrible what happened on january 6th and we will do those new procedures. now trump comes in and he is the new president, zuckerberg is kissing his ring. this is crazy, this is an entity, facebook, or millions of people in the world get their information and mark zuckerberg comes out of the video where he says the words i am now going to be working with president trump.

hold up, most people are getting their political information from you, and you are working with the president on stuff? this is totally out of line, it's totally out of control. >> okay, but hold on. it doesn't surprise me, i don't even fault the ceos for going down to mar-a-lago. for them, at least in the short term or for the next two to four years, it's good business for them. it's good business for them. but is there a moment where their customers, whether users, it is advertisers that pay mark zuckerberg the zillions of dollars. is there a moment when users start to say hold on a second? like i am the one that uses this platform every day. i don't feel like being called a big fat ugly ass loser every day. that is what we are headed for. how about we spend the last six years talking about the harm it is doing? think about all the people you have reported on. we sat there over and over talking to parents who say my child was bullied online, look at it led to. we need legislation against it. and that did not do anything.

>> no. we've been having this same conversation for so many years. no, you are right. is a capitulation, a politically calculated move. they do not care about users. these are huge companies that do not care about their users. what can be done? i've said this to you before. there can be a mass migration. we saw that when elon took over twitter and turned it into a nazi bar. many people left, they went to blue sky, and it is a much more pleasant experience. it's a little woke, a little lefty, but you don't get called, it doesn't have the influence. >> but twitter, it does not have the juice anymore as real information. >> one difference is a privately held company versus a publicly traded company. people vote with their eyeballs, their wallets, they can make changes that would put pressure on this, if the experience comes so increasingly toxic people can vote with their feet and migrate. maybe that's what it will take. maybe that is the only force. the larger dangers, you see a lot of anticipatory obedience. on the part of ceos, some of the

wealthiest people in the world, trying to curry favor with an incoming administration because the threats are effective. that is the larger danger. >> trump said it yesterday. he was asked did your threats work? >> this is also the easiest decision ever to make. hey, all those things a guy you lambasted in the media, but you don't care, you can forget about all those things. wonderful, nevermind. will go back to everyone can say whatever they want, and i am now invited into the west wing. beautiful. >> but remember, when a lot of republicans and trump himself praised victor ormonde throughout the campaign, in addition to throughout the rnc, it almost made it in the background. this is part of the problem when you see disinformation channels on social media shaping, manufacturing consent, creating reality. you see all sorts of oligarchs buying media outlets and making them fall in line. this is a larger danger.

typically companies don't say i look forward to cooperating 100% with the incoming administration, and less they are afraid in the use the fig leaf of fiduciary responsibility to say i've got to kiss the ring. because otherwise we will get punished and that will be bad for business. that is what's happening, but that is a complete spinal appendectomy, to create a word, where these folks are folding. and everyone has got the reasons. but the impact for our ability to deliberate as a democracy and reason together is dangerous. >> i know i am out of time, but folks are folding because they are also not facing any pushback from the customers or employees, which is shocking to me, because that was not the case last time around. do you remember, when donald trump won last time, ceos were walking a tight rope. they did not want to go to the white house because their employees were mad about it, the customers were, now it seems like that has dissipated. and i do not know why.

>> i think the reason is because the american people have seen what he is able to do, and not have consequences. he did an insurrection. and we just celebrated january 6th as if it were like a totally different day. but we acknowledged it, i guess. some people celebrated it. and i think once people have seen that he is able to get by without impunity, they are like i could take the billions of dollars that are coming to me and not have to hassle for the next four years and isolate myself as an oligarch, or i can fight this every day, maybe end up in jail, maybe end up getting shot. >> or the american people can say they are not getting billions of dollars, and they did not vote to have the protections taken away on the platforms that they use every day in their lives and illnesses. all right, brandy, thank you so much. the rest of you stick around. when we return, the wildfires raging in l.a. are highlighting the risk of climate change. yes, climate change. plus, how trump is using it. can you guess what he's doing with it?

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author of "our fragile moment: how lessons from earth's past can help us survive the climate crisis." first i want to get your take on these horrible fires, and how climate change is contributing to the. >> yeah, thanks, stephanie. i would say it's good to be with you, but we almost never have the news to discuss, do we? you know, what we are seeing play out as a tragedy. and it is a preventable tragedy. it is the result of the fact that we have continued to burn fossil fuels, elevate the levels of carbon pollution in the atmosphere to the point where we now have a fire season that stretches well into the winter , into the new year, and what we are seeing now is that the fire season has expanded to the point where it is overlapping with the santa ana wind season. they did not used to overlap. the santa ana wind tends to occur outside of the dry season. but now we are seeing in overlap, because the dry season is getting longer. the rains are taking longer to come in the winter. it is january and there has barely been any rainfall over a large stretch of southern

california. and all of that is tied to the large-scale warming of the planet from the burning of fossil fuels. >> donald trump is blaming president biden and governor newsom for these fires. what is your reaction? >> yeah, of course he is. this is classic deflection. because he doesn't want to talk about climate change. his incoming administration is doing everything they can to dismantle climate action in the u.s. to dismantle programs to incentivize clean energy, a move towards clean energy. climate solutions. so he is trying to distract the public by talking about anything else, by talking about the governor, by talking about the current president, by talking about land-use practices or raking of leaves, anything he can to distract the public so

that they don't see this for what it is. a manifestation of our continued addiction to fossil fuels , and addiction that his administration hopes to maintain. >> all right, dr. mann, thank you for joining us. again, i would say it's good to see you, but i never see you on a good night. thank you for your work. we'll be right back. your day with. yes. yes yes bingo moments, power ups and challenging missions. bingo blitz. now that's a bingo play. now it's free. do you have an ugly, outdated, maybe even unsafe bath or shower? you could remodel it the hard way. or you could do it the easy way by calling jacuzzi and get the beautiful bathroom of your dreams installed in just one

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